Senior Raequan Charingto feigns exhaustion during a science proficiency exam tutoring session for seniors in the classroom of science teacher Sergio Lopez at Chaparral High School in Las Vegas on Monday, April 23, 2012.

Now halfway into the second year of the "turnaround effort," the hectic pace of year one has calmed but the work continues at the three Clark County turnaround high schools: Chaparral, Mojave and Western.

Despite its proclamations of being transparent with the community, the Clark County School District has refused to grant repeated public records requests from the Sun for graduation data from the three "turnaround" high schools.

A lot has changed at Chaparral High School this year — new leadership, new teachers and a new attitude about discipline and academics. Not everyone liked the changes at first. Hundreds of students and parents protested last year when Chaparral was deemed a “turnaround” school, meaning more than half the teachers had to be replaced. In the fall, 10 Chap seniors were asked about the turnaround efforts and their goals for the school year. Nearly 180 school days later, we reached out to the same students to see if they’ll walk this weekend and their plans for the future.

Evaleen Diaz plods up three flights of stairs at Western High School as rushing students course around her. At the top, the 18-year-old lets out a huge sigh. It is still early in the morning, but Diaz is spent. She’s pregnant. The news came as a surprise to her in December, when she was preparing for her last chance to pass the Nevada High School Proficiency Exam, a necessary step in earning her diploma. And if she’s going to provide the kind of life she wants for her daughter, Isabella, she needs that diploma.

Chaparral High School, previously identified as one of Clark County School District’s five worst-performing schools, is wrapping up its first year of a turnaround effort to improve student achievement and campus morale. On prom night, we asked seniors how they thought the year has gone.

A.J. Coleman had no previous experience in the sport, and had never coached a girls team or held the job of a head coach. But it was three weeks before the season was to begin, and with the Cowboys still not having their first practice, Coleman couldn’t pass on a chance to mentor a group of teens he’s become passionate about.

When Jeff Sylvester saw a Facebook post from Western High School alumni seeking donations for a baseball scoreboard dedicated in his brother’s memory, he made a phone call and said he’d pick up the cost. The Gregory Sylvester Memorial Field had been dedicated in the early 1980s with a small sign behind the backstop honoring the former Western player who was stabbed to death months before his senior season in 1981.

After an injection of $8.7 million in federal funding to turn around four of Las Vegas’ worst performing schools, the U.S. Department of Education’s second-in-command was curious about the results so far. U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Tony Miller on Thursday was in Las Vegas to tour Western High School, an inner-city “turnaround” school that received a three-year, $2.5 million School Improvement Grant last spring to radically change the culture of the chronically low-performing school.

When Tommy Krier, the Western High School baseball coach, returned home Monday night after a game, his wife greeted him with the usual question: “Did you win?” His team seldom tasted victory. Yeah, 3-2, the soft-spoken Krier nonchalantly responded. And it took a few moments for it to sink in on his wife how huge that was: Her husband’s rag-tag Warriors were playing Sierra Vista that night.

“PBS NewsHour” correspondent Ray Suarez visited Chaparral High School on Wednesday as part of a national public education initiative – American Graduate – that aims to address the dropout crisis at 20 major school districts across the country.

Long, glum faces stare back at Todde Webb as he begins lecturing 44 Mojave High School students about good character and leadership. The five-year veteran teacher knows it’s hard to engage students, especially early on a Saturday morning.

The harsh florescent lights flicker inside a portable classroom behind Mojave High School where three students work in silence, their brows furrowed as they pore over their textbooks. The small room they are in is largely barren, save a few desks, a couple of computers and a whiteboard.

In a nondescript room on the second floor of Mojave High School, three students are tinkering away on a dream. For now, the dream consists only of a metal frame, six rubber wheels, and a few motors and wires.

Neddy Alvarez nervously eyes two parked police cruisers as she drives down Lorna Place in the central Las Vegas Valley.
The red and blue flashing lights — visible even in the early Saturday morning light — has placed the Western High School principal and her two volunteers on alert. Their brief orientation earlier in the day has taught them to be wary of their surroundings as they try to win back the hearts and minds of 56 students who have seemingly dropped out of school within the first semester.

With just 10 minutes remaining for practice, high school sophomore guard Jocelyn Jordan hustles onto the basketball floor, out of breath. She’s late. Again. Jordan had jogged from the city bus stop on Decatur Boulevard near the school, ending her daily two-bus, hourlong journey just in time to join the last minutes of a scrimmage.

For all the highbrow strategies to get more kids to graduate from high school, Clark County School District Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Pedro Martinez thinks the Clark County School District is learning what really works.

Edgar Acosta faces a daunting task as a teacher charged with improving reading test scores among some of the most challenging students in Clark County. They’re the ones who don’t speak English at home. For the past two years, the remedial English teacher has worked day and night with immigrant children and their parents from mainly Latin American countries, helping them master a new language and adapt to a different country.

Greg Cole is in the middle of an important meeting with a parent conflicted about sending his son to the perennially struggling Mojave High School when the bell rings.
The burly assistant principal jumps up from his desk and grabs his walkie-talkie.

Tommy Anderson fires off questions that sound more familiar in a teaching hospital than a high school classroom. What’s the difference between systolic and diastolic blood pressure? Hypertension and hypotension? Tachycardia and bradycardia? Anderson looks around his class of 40 freshmen and sophomores, some with hands raised high. The head of the new health occupations program at Western High School is pioneering an advanced level of coursework that is more likely to be found in Clark County’s prestigious magnet schools than at one of its at-risk, turnaround high schools.

A year ago Chaparral High School was a tough environment to be a young adult, so tough that 16-year-old Patricia Soto developed the demeanor of a woman a decade older. She had the attitude, the body language, ditched classes and hung out with kids who were expelled for drinking, fighting and doing drugs.

Judging by the looks on their faces, they may as well have been seated in midday detention rather than a test prep session, two dozen students gathered in a Chaparral High School classroom one recent morning.

Mojave High School is one of the Clark County School District’s most troubled schools, with among the lowest test scores and graduation rates in a system that already ranks among the nation’s lowest-performing. The 15-year-old North Las Vegas high school has also seen its fair share of problems.

One by one, Paula Barry’s kindergarten class marched out of her classroom in a long, single-file line that stretched the length of the hallway and around the corner. “Here come the little ducklings,” the 10-year veteran teacher said as she led her flock of 41 students to recess.

Since the day the staff was hired for this year, we have been saying that we know there are great kids on the campus of Mojave High School. Not surprisingly, the kids are proving us right on a daily basis.

Chaparral High School has one of the lowest graduation rates in the Clark County School District, a system that itself has a graduation rate among the worst in the country. This past year, just three of every 10 seniors at Chaparral received a diploma.

For a football team that has only won a single game in the last two years, Mojave’s big win on Friday represented the hope that things are finally changing — athletically at least — at the struggling “turnaround” high school.

It was a quiet moment between mother and son at a high school football game, Toure Williams and Angela Choice in a strong embrace. The 17-year-old wide receiver for Chaparral High School wore an inflatable brace on his left knee to stabilize an injured joint.

The school year has started off well at Chaparral. Student suspensions, referrals and parent conferences for behavioral issues are significantly down when compared with the first two weeks of the 2010 school year.

Antonio Rael takes a deep breath and rings the front door bell.
Dogs start barking from within the house, the noise piercing the morning quiet. A few foreclosure signs dot the neighborhood around the single-story house two blocks south of Mojave High School.

Even before the school year began, Principal Jerre Moore knew she had made friends — and critics — at the academically troubled Hancock Elementary School. “She’s very nice, very polite. She just loves kids to death,” said Sidney Wursch, a precocious third-grader who remembered Moore from last year. But Sidney’s great-grandfather, Lee Beatty, has a different memory of last year, when Moore arrived and began imposing changes.

Keith France raises his hand in a peace sign high above the crowd like a conductor about to lead an orchestra through a Mozart symphony. The cacophony from nervous kindergartners and camera-carrying parents subsides.

We have finished the beginning first week of an incredible year. I can speak for the teachers and staff at Elizondo that we are thrilled to work with the children of this community. They have arrived at school wide-eyed and ready to soak up all that the teachers have to give.

This is Mojave High School’s sorry reputation: Because it was proclaimed a “persistently low-achieving school” by the Clark County School District, students living within its boundaries were allowed to attend different schools last year.

David Wilson moved among the 24 Chaparral High School students like an old-style preacher beckoning skeptical congregants to rise to their feet to speak. “What do you want from me? What can I do for you?” he said.

Dawn is still an hour away and Dwight Jones is in his office, running on four hours of sleep. There’s not enough time in the day, he says, to address all the problems facing the Clark County School District. So much to do. So much at stake.

Starting today, the Sun, with the cooperation of the Clark County School District, will track the progress of five turnaround schools — campuses that have been singled out as needing extraordinary help because students have performed so poorly.

We were gathered near an elementary campus for the Clark County School District’s annual back-to-school traffic safety event, where students would demonstrate the proper way to navigate a busy intersection.

Barbara and Hank Greenspun, my parents, started the Las Vegas Sun just over 61 years ago because my father believed that Las Vegas was a community worth fighting for, and the best way he could do that was to publish a newspaper.

When it comes to student achievement, reform in the Clark County School District must include raising both the ceiling and the floor. Good schools can become better, and schools that have a history of low performance must be assisted immediately.

Superintendent Dwight Jones, School Board President Carolyn Edwards, Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Pedro Martinez and Turnaround Leader Florence Barker recently sat down with reporters Dave Berns and Paul Takahashi to discuss the turnaround schools, the challenges of the upcoming school year and the Sun’s ongoing project, “The Turnaround: Inside Clark County Schools.” Here are excerpts of that discussion.

In partnership with the Sun, KSNV Channel 3 has launched its coverage of “The Turnaround: Inside Clark County Schools.” News 3 anchor Jessica Moore explains the project and introduces the five leaders of the turnaround schools: